Terence Smith, Journalist; former Correspondent, "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer"
Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post says one financial model won't apply to all news outlets, just as there will be no single model for news gathering. With her are Gordon Crovitz, left, of Journalism Online and Bill Keller of The New York Times.
Information wants to be free. On the other hand, journalists want to eat.
Reflecting on the future of news, executives from different types of media outlets compared their various financial models and generally agreed that there would be no single way of doing business going forward.
Much of the discussion focused on The New York Times′ plan for "freemium" access to its website: Readers could view a certain number of articles each month before they would have to pay for further access, Executive Editor Bill Keller said. If readers arrive at the website via a search engine or a link from another site, that view would be free.
Other panelists discussed how they fund their news gathering: Vivian Schiller of NPR said it is supported by listeners, sponsors and philanthropy, while Andy Lack of Bloomberg said that organization's well-known information terminals support its 2,300 staffers worldwide.
Arianna Huffington said there′s no single financial model that will apply to all news outlets, just as there will be no single model for news gathering.
The panel also scoffed at predictions that print is dead.
"We shouldn′t worry?" asked moderator Terence Smith.
Global Conference 2013
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, philanthropist Bill Gates and Strive Masiyiwa of Econet Wireless discuss advancing prosperity in Africa.
